Layers of Meaning
commentary on design, fiber art, & modern embroidery from Serena Fenton
Come! Read! Mandy Southan has cleared the mud on how to do successful color mixing. (and why if you buy your paints premixed, the finished pieces seem lacking.)
Just a taste: "Most people find working with colour difficult either because they have never been taught colour theory and mixing or if they have, they were taught the old 'primary' mixing system using three primary colours - red, yellow and blue to mix three 'secondary' colours - violet, green and orange. Despite the pioneering work of people such as Michael Wilcox, founder of 'The School of Colour' and author of 'Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green', the old primary system persists, causing frustration and confusion for painters in every field.
(Thanks to Jeannie Call and the Quiltart list for the tip.) image: the right colours by Mandy Southan
Chiaroscuro is the variation of light to dark across the surface of anything. Here are two definitions of the word:
1 - "In conventional artwriting, chiaroscuro means merely modelling a form, as in a shaded drawing, in terms of light (clear=chiaro) and dark (obscure=scuro). As such, chiaroscuro is a generic term and does not describe a particular manner of modelling." Words of Art
2 - "In order to understand thoroughly the meaning of this word, we must know that claro implies not only any thing exposed to a direct light, but also all such colours as are luminous in their natures; and obscura all the colours which are naturally brown ... deep velvets, brown stuffs a black horse, polished armor, and the like, which preserve their natural or apparent obscurity in any light whatever." Oxford Companion to Art
The second definition reveals the heart of chiaroscuro. It is the movement from clarity into obscurity. Things are revealed and then hidden. Vermeer has created a world where everyday life is revealed and then hidden. Georges de la Tour's The Repentant Magdalene embodies this revealing and falling away, as does the LaTour to the left.
In fiber, we tend to create more graphical worlds where objects are very flat, abstract and two dimensional. Faith Ringgold brings the two worlds together by painting on her fabric before she quilts it, but it's not a world where objects are hidden and revealed. Are there quilters who fully utilize the drama of chiaroscuro?
Today's workout: Jane Dunnewold has a wonderful exercise, Expansion of the Square, on her site. The stated goal of the exercise is to stretch yourself in seeing positive-negative space. But the way the work is executed, or perhaps it is Jane's design sensibilities, makes a simple exercise in negative space and symmetry into something active and evocative.
From the exercise: "Notan, the interaction of positive and negative, or field and ground, is the basis of all good design and exists all around us. The "Expansion of the Square" exercise is one Notan exercise designed to study the interaction of positive and negative space, but these very cool designs can also be turned into quilt blocks, images to be printed, or small embroideries."
